Though the idea of a dystopian society has been recorded differently in many novels, each tale presents a cold and unfeeling world, chilling to the bone and imagination. And yet, we can’t get enough of them. What is it that drives us to study these stories? We are made to read 1984 and Animal Farm in school, we write essays on Atlas Shrugged and The Handmaid’s Tale for college, learning about certain society behavior, and a bit of our own.
Movies about dystopian societies have tried coming to life from the pages of a book; ‘Bladerunner’, from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and ‘The Running Man’, who was written under Stephen King’s alias of Richard Bachman. Perhaps the most famous dystopian book & movie franchise in recent memory is The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins.
I’ve written a few apocalyptic stories and have recently had two more picked up by my publisher, Evernight. I have written two strong females tested to their very brink of breaking. I absolutely loved pushing, not only my characters, but my own limits as well.
But what draws into such grim glimpses into a future? Is it the hope we never face it ourselves, or the thought we could be headed that way? Recently, with the Covid 19 pandemic, we've had a brush of a dystopian world, and I'm afraid we didn't pass with flying colors.
Maybe it’s the fight of the human spirit that we enjoy the most, connecting with a hero or heroine and going on the journey with him or her. Second guessing their decisions or trying to problem solve with them, as well as watching him or her over come almost impossible odds in an environment we hope never to find ourselves.
Two of my favorite dystopian romance stories are Countdown by Michelle Maddox and Matched by Ally Condie, but I’m sure there are many more I’ve not had the pleasure of discovering yet.
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